Kids Playroom: Reading Nook

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Hi everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I can’t believe it has been so long since I’ve last published a post! Let’s just say I took a little break...because I didn’t realize how overwhelming and hard work it is to keep up with a blog!

Well, I wanted to share some progress I’ve made to my kid’s playroom since a few months ago. It’s still not completely done, but it is getting there!

When I first started thinking about how to design the playroom for my daughter, I wanted to make sure that I incorporated a little reading corner for her in hopes that it will encourage her to love reading all of her books everyday...even if that means she’s flipping pages and looking at the pictures or let’s just be honest, she tears the pages and eats the book. There is this little wall adjacent to the window wall where I added a window seat and storage. I thought this little wall would be perfect for her little reading corner.

I mapped out what I wanted to do with this space. I didn’t really want the traditional bookshelves that were bulky and boxy. I preferred something that was dual purpose for storage and decor. I envisioned a sitting area in this reading corner for the kid to sit and read. I used lots of color for the window seat, so I wanted to keep the rest of the room colorful and playful as well.

I wasn’t sure what exactly I was looking for, so I went searching for book shelves, browsed many online catalogs, looked for inspiration on Pinterest. Then I spotted this adorable tree bookshelf!

I loved it and just purchased without thinking much more about it (haha yikes). And the design started formulating in my head around this tree. I almost forgot that I had white cloud shelves laying around. I bought these awhile back originally for my daughter’s bedroom for the purpose of placing a baby monitor. However, they didn’t look quite right in her bedroom, so they’ve just been sitting in the closet.

Well, I’m glad I never returned them! I thought it might look cool to use these clouds for additional decor and shelving along with the tree. But the paint color on my walls is more of a cream color, so simply placing the white clouds on the wall wouldn’t make it pop as much as I wanted it to. What if I created a bolder background for more contrast...an idea crossed my mind to paint large circles as the backdrop for the white cloud shelves. However, I was lazy and it seemed like a pain to paint perfectly round circles. As I was searching for ideas, I came across this little website. Lightbulb moment: I can use Wall stickers! I’m not sure it’s still called a polka dot if it’s a gigantic circle measuring 25” in diameter, but whatever size - this site had them! The owner, Jesse, is awesome and has made the process of ordering these “polka dots” so easy for me!

I started drawing out my design for this space just to make sure everything will look the way it does in my head. Here’s my sketch of the design for the space that I finally settled on:

To determine the size of the circle, I determined that I wanted at least 1-2 inches of border on each side of the cloud shelf. The small cloud shelf measured 16 inches wide, and so my circles for those were 20 inches and 21 inches in diameter. The large cloud shelf measured 22 inches wide, and so my circle for this one was 25 inches in diameter. To complete the wall, I went ahead and ordered a crescent moon from the same theme collection as the cloud shelves just to have a complete picture.

After I finished with my design for the wall, I wanted to create a place where my kid could sit and read. There are several places already in the playroom where she could read like the window seat and inside her little campsite tent. …but what I really wanted was a miniature sitting area that was kids size in front of all of the books. I bought this little seat from Home Goods awhile ago and didn’t have a good place for it yet when I was designing the room. It’s an adorable mini chaise/couch, isn’t it?? It may or may not be a dog bed (that cost a lot less than an actual mini couch for children) that I thought would be PERFECT for my kid, and IT IS! It’ll be a perfect little seating area in her reading corner. I added a little faux fur area rug to cozy up the area.

I think my kid loves it even though I feel like sometimes she is intentionally trying to destroy it.

Don’t mind the bite marks and chunks of the covers and edges that my kid chewed off hah…..

Thank you all for visiting!

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